H TESTIMONY
OF THE º º º
SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
ON
IN DIAN C | V || LI ZATION
subvinº ºn to the
COMMISSION APPOINTED TO CONSIDER THE
Transfer of the ſndian Bureau to the
War Department
-- . . . . .
- - - - -
- PHILADELPHIA:
FRIENDS' B O O. K. A SS O C.I.A. T. I O N.
1878.



Testimony of the Society of Friends on Indian Civilization, submitted
to the Commission appointed to consider the Transfer of the
Indian Bureau to the War Department.
The undersigned, members of the Central Executive Com-
mittee of the seven Yearly Meetings of Friends having the care
of the Indian Agencies in Nebraska, and of the Pawnee Agency
in the Indian Territory, respectfully solicit the attention of the
Indian Transfer Commission to a concise statement of facts
relating to Indian civilization, which have come under our own
observation since we have been engaged in the Indian service.
This statement will embrace the motives which induced Presi-
dent Grant to call us into this field of service, the condition in
which we found the Indians placed under our care, the measures
adopted for their improvement, and the results that have attended
our labors. -
At a meeting of our Committee on Indian Affairs, held in
Baltimore in the Spring of 1869, the following letter, addressed
to our Secretary, was read:
HEADQUARTERS ARMY of THE UNITED ... "
WASHINoron, D. C., Feb. 15th, 1869.
BENJAMIN HALLOWELL,
Sandy Spring, Md.
SIR –General Grant, the President elect, desirous of inaugurating some
policy to protect the Indians in their just rights, and enforce integrity in the
administration of their affairs, as well as to improve their general condition;
and appreciating fully the friendship and interest which your Society has
ever maintained in their behalf, directs me to request that you will send him
a list of names, members of your Society whom your Society will endorse,
as suitable persons for Indian Agents.
Also, to assure you that any attempt which may or can be made by your

4.
Society for the improvement, education and christianization of the Indians,
under such agencies, will receive from him, as President, all the encourage-
ment and protection which the laws of the United States will warrant him
in giving.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
E. S. PARKER,
Brev. Brig.-Gen. U. S. A. and A. D. C.
After due deliberation and consultation by committees of the sev-
eral Yearly Meetings of Friends in correspondence with us, we
concluded to accept the important trust, and in a circular addressed
to our members the qualifications desired and needed in Indian
Agents were thus described: “First, a prayerful heart and a firm
trust in the power and wisdom of God—and not in man or mili-
tary force—for guidance and protection; Second, industry, eco-
nomy, firmness, vigilance, mildness and practical kindness and
love; Third, a knowledge of farming and gardening, ability to
superintend the construction of buildings, and see that schools
are properly conducted ; Fourth, tact in managing or influencing
persons, so as gradually to induce the Indians of his agency
voluntarily to join in the various employments of farming and
gardening, and in mechanical operations; Fifth, and, high in the
scale of qualifications, to be possessed of strict integrity, and to be
perfectly reliable in financial matters, and know how to employ
with economy and to the best advantage the funds entrusted to
him by the government for the use of the agency.”
The Northern Superintendency was assigned to us, comprising
six agencies in the State of Nebraska, namely: the Santee Sioux,
the Winnebago, the Omaha, the Pawnee, the Otoe and the
Great Nemaha. We nominated a Superintendent and six Agents,
who were promptly appointed by the President and confirmed by
the Senate. They proceeded to their several fields of labor in
the Spring and Summer of 1869. In order to secure efficiency
and fidelity in the management of the agencies, it was recom-
mended to the several Yearly Meetings of Friends that a visiting
committee be sent out every year to inspect the condition of the
Indians and recommend such measures as would promote their
welfare. Clothing for the children attending school, and suitable
food for the sick and infirm, were supplied by the Indian Com-

5
mittees of the Yearly Meetings. The first visiting committee
went to all the agencies in the Summer of 1869, and reported
the condition of the Indians in Nebraska as follows:
“These wards of the government were found in a very
depressed and degraded condition, as a general thing; poor, hun-
gry, idle, from want of means and inducements to labor; desti-
tute of suitable clothing, complaining of unfulfilled treaty stipu-
lations; living in lodges with several families in a single apart-
ment, thus excluding that healthful privacy which decency and
virtue require; the lodges dark, unventilated, often filthy; and,
as a consequence of this condition, sickness extensively abound-
ing, especially among the children—scrofulous gatherings and
ulcers, sore eyes, debility and consumption.”
The measures we adopted to promote civilization were:
1. The establishment of schools and the improvement of
those already existing; care being taken to employ teachers
whose moral influence would promote the growth of virtue. At
all the agencies Sabbath schools were held, in which Scripture
lessons, blended with religious instruction, were given to the
children, and such of the adults as were willing to attend.
2. The allotment of lands in severalty to the tribes willing to
accept of them.
The Santee Sioux, the Winnebagoes and the Omahas expressed
in council their willingness to have their lands allotted to fami.
lies, which was done soon after we took charge of the agencies.
It has proved to be a great stimulus to industry, and a very large
number of cultivated farms supply a comfortable subsistence to
their owners. -
3. The distribution of agricultural implements, live stock and
seeds. At first white men were employed to instruct the Indians
in the use of tools and methods of farming; now they have gen-
erally learned to depend on themselves.
4. The instruction of Indians in mechanical employments.
Many of them have learned to be carpenters, blacksmiths, shoe-
makers and millers. -
5. The building of houses on their allotments. In most cases
the Indians, when supplied by the agent with doors, window sash

6
and flooring boards, have built their own houses of logs; in
some cases houses have been built for them.
6. The employment of matrons to instruct the Indian women
in household duties and the care of the sick. The peculiar
adaptation of women for this work has been too much over-
looked in the efforts that have been made to civilize the Indians.
It has been found by experience that an enlightened and good
woman, who will go among the Indian women, and manifest an
interest in them and their children, can soon gain their confi-
dence. She may instruct them in the proper care of their chil-
dren, and in other household duties, and she will often find oppor-
tunities of imparting religious knowledge, which, being associ-
ated with deeds of love, will make a lasting impression.
The results that have attended our efforts to civilize the
Indians in Nebraska have in general been very satisfactory. The
report of Barclay White, Friends’ Special Agent, who visited all
the agencies during the past summer, is encouraging. He says,
“I have found the Indians at all these agencies peaceable, well
disposed towards the government, and favorable to the continu-
ance of the peace policy, as it was inaugurated by President
Grant in 1869, in the management of their affairs.” During the
settlement of Nebraska prior to the year 1871, history records
each year numerous murders of white persons by Indians. Since
1871, no Indian belonging to either of the seven tribes placed
in our care has been guilty of or charged with taking the life of
a white person; and although in several instances Indian mem-
bers of those tribes have been wantonly killed by white men,
they have sought no retaliation, but in all cases have left the
punishment of the offenders to the authºrities and the law.
“The advancement of these Indian tribes in civilized pursuits
tending to make them self-supporting when the wild game is
beyond their reach, has been great in the aggregate, and with
some of the tribes very remarkable, especially so in agriculture,
resulting during favorable years in a production of food fully
equal to the needs of the members of the tribe.”
In the year 1869 the Winnebagoes were so idle and improvi-
dent that they raised but little wheat or corn. They depended
chiefly for subsistence on rations of flour and beef issued to them
-

7
by the government. The expenditure to supply them one year.
was for beef, $18,233.68; for flour, ground from wheat,
$9,739.04, and for salt, $106.40-making an aggregate of more
than twenty-eight thousand dollars. “These issue subsistence
supplies have been gradually reduced in quantity as agriculture
has advanced in the tribe, until the Indians have become inde-
pendent of them and are self-supporting. -
The Winnebagoes number 1,444 persons. Last year they
raised eight thousand bushels of wheat, thirty thousand bushels
of corn, and five thousand bushels of potatoes. One hundred
and seventy-five persons can read English, and their three schools
have about one hundred pupils. They have 125 houses, and
nearly all the males wear citizens' dress.
The Omahas number 1,001 persons. Their crops last year
were seventeen thousand bushels of wheat, thirty-two thousand
bushels of corn, and six thousand bushels of potatoes.
The Santee Sioux number 757 persons. They raised last
year ten thousand bushels of wheat, nine thousand bushels of
corn and eighteen hundred bushels of potatoes.
The Otoes number 443, the Iowas 213 and the Sacs and
Foxes of Missouri 107 persons. The aggregate of their crops
raised by Indians was 1,779 bushels of wheat, 40,000 bushels
of corn and 2,150 bushels of potatoes.
The Pawnees, at their own request, were removed by the
government to the Indian Territory in the year 1875, and a
reservation assigned to them there. They have suffered much
from sickness caused by malaria, and have lost by death nearly
one-third of their number. They now number 1,438 persons.
Under such discouraging circumstances no progress in civiliza-
tion could be expected, but their health has improved during the
last year; they are building houses on their allotments, and man.
ifest much interest in the education of their children.
In the report of Barclay White, Friends’ Special Agent, he
writes: “Since the time when the President-elect, U. S. Grant,
tendered to the Society of Friends the nomination of officers in
the Northern Indian Superintendency and its branches, and upon
its acceptance of the trust, stated to its representatives, ‘Whom
you nominate and endorse, I will appoint, the Society has exer-

8
cised much vigilance and care in its selection of moral, honest
and competent Christian missionaries to fill the various positions
connected there with, and results have proven that it has generally
been eminently successful in its nominations of Agents. Most
of the Indian Agents whom it has placed in this arduous and illy-
paid government service, which is encompassed with privations,
calumny and responsibility, have been as competent, honest and
faithful servants of the government as can be found in any of its
departments. Not one of the eighteen Indian Agents, nominated
by Friends and commissioned by the President, has been proven
unfaithful to the trust committed to him.”
“Under the care of the Interior Department our Indians are,
in the aggregate, making good progress, and some of them very
rapid advancement in civilization and self-support; they have
given the government no trouble during the year on account of
belligerent acts. The question of their transfer to the War
Department has been considered and discussed by each of the
tribes during the Summer; they are almost a unit in opposition
to it. I believe such a transfer would not only be a great mis-
fortune to the Indians, but would be calculated to add to the
long list of injustice, broken faith and strife, of which we have
already far too much upon the historical records of this country.”
We heartly concur in the opinion expressed by Barclay White,
that it is not expedient to transfer the Indian Bureau to the War
Department. It is well known that for many years that Depart-
ment had the control of Indian affairs, during which time wars
with the Indians were frequent, and very few of the tribes made
any progress in civilization.
The peace policy inaugurated by President Grant is, in our
opinion, the only safe and sure method to prepare the Indians for
performing the duties of American citizens and enjoying the
blessings of Christianity.
SAMUEL M. JANNEY.
B. Rush Roberts.
BAR clay WHITs.
Washington, D.C., Twelfth mo. 12th, 1878.
º - 2373-H
º, ſee/ "/ ºſºe º º Lø, º
º * ºn 7.2/a, *
-
-
- - - - .